An astonishingly fresh Qajar-era illustrated edition ofYusuf and Zulaikha. With sixteen beautiful lithographed illustrations, it is a lovely example of how the classic tale appeared as popular print in late nineteenth-century Iran. This copy is in an unusual, probably interim, binding embellished with advertisements from the Troitsko-Kondrovskaya paper mill of V. Howard and Co. This is significant as it manifests the link between Russian stationery and Iranian book production, showing how Tehran printers and publishers not only used Russian paper (which is well-known) but also its packaging.
The heyday of lithography in Qajar Iran lasted for over two decades, with apparently no books being printed by typography from 1853 to 1873 (cf. Marzolph, p.12). Even after that period, the process was commonly employed for illustrated works, as it easily allowed the combination of text and image found in the manuscript tradition. Such qualities enabled publishers to produce affordable illustrated editions of famous texts, such as the present version of Yusuf and Zulaikha. Complete with an illustrated title-page (showing a Western-inspired putto) and sixteen lithographically-reproduced drawings, it is a fine example of how the popular art of the time was adapted to the medium. The stand-out image is a beautiful full-page illustration of Yusuf standing among Zulaikha’s party, his eyes glancing sideways to meet her gaze (p.132).
Throughout the nineteenth century most of the materials used in Iranian book production were imported, from presses to paper. This was largely because printing had come late to the country —the earliest known lithographed book was a Qur’an printed in Tabriz in 1834 (cf. Izadpanah, p.121)— and that printed books required different materials to manuscripts. Lithography, in particular, was not suited to polished (and other traditional Islamic) papers and required a more absorbent stock, of the kind that was being manufactured in the West. Russia, being the closest country making such paper at scale, became its chief source, which is evidenced in the large number of surviving Iranian lithographed books with Russian watermarks.
The present book is exceptional as it embodies that history, both in its paper and binding. Most likely created by an employee of the publisher or printing house, the binding salvages the advertisements of the Troitsko-Kondrovskaya paper mill of V. Howard and Co., a leading Russian stationery company. Combining pragmatism with an artist’s eye, it features two identical adverts, applied symmetrically to the boards. Decorated with woodcuts, they illustrate the company’s achievements and status as an exporter, with the remarkable central scene showing the actual paper mill (complete with smoking chimneys), a waiting ship and the packaged goods, all foregrounded by Mercury, the messenger of the Gods. Folding over onto the inner boards, they leave small gaps, through which loose leaves from another Iranian lithograph are visible. This near-hidden detail helps confirm the binding was made in Iran, and gives a fuller picture of the materials available to its unnamed maker.
Rare. Ulrich Marzolph notes three copies, at the British Library, the Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales (Paris) and a private collection (cf. Marzolph, p.268). We cannot trace any further examples in LibraryHub or OCLC.
Provenance: Charles-Henri-Auguste Schefer (1820-1898), French scholar, diplomat and bibliophile whose collection and estate were sold in 1898 and 1899. We are aware of one other similarly bound lithographed book from his collection (Ketab-e Yusofiyye, Tehran, [c.1880]), utilising advertisements from a Nizhny Novgorod-based firm.
Chefer travelled widely as a diplomat and purchased (along with being gifted) many printed books and manuscripts over several decades of collecting. There are no inscriptions recording where he acquired this book. The only additions to the text are two seal impressions, one to page 2 and the other to page 230. The seal to p.2 is most likely a mark of inspection as the Farsi appears to translate as ‘was observed’. We have seen and handled several other 1880s Iranian lithographed books baring the same seal, all on the first page of the main text, further indicating it was employed to signal official approval at the time. We have not been able to decipher the other seal impression.
References: Borna Izadpanah, ‘Persian and Arabic Printing with moveable type in Qajar Iran (1818-1900)’ in Arabic Typography, History and Practice, Niggli, 2023, pp.75-153; Ulrich Marzolph, Narrative Illustration in Persian Lithographed Books, Brill, 2001.
